GPS Satellite Failures and Finding Our Way Instinctually Without Digital Maps

If you still see a folded paper map in any car today, it must be a time-traveling DeLorean or any archaic vehicle sitting around and rotting to pieces since the 1980's. And if a car is sitting around that long, it's time to haul it off to a junk dealer, friend. But before the car gets hauled away and the paper map in the glove compartment gets pitched out, you might want to hang onto that map likely decorated with a Rand McNally publishing marker on its front cover. It might just come in handy during a renaissance of using paper maps in the next decade when GPS satellites supposedly fail and leave us stranded out on the road to regain our bearings under own instincts.

Well, not that being thrown out into the barren world on our own is necessarily a negative side to the human psyche. I've always been a strong proponent in breaking complacency at least once or twice in a modern world that frequently gets stuck in a trap as the result of leaning too heavily on fragile and unpredictable technology.

Certainly GPS systems have become one of those strange technological devices that certain segments of the populace have almost bonded with in a quasi Dave/Hal 9000 form of relationship. Case in point would be seen in American pop culture when we see very human drivers conversing with their GPS voice that, by design or not, were sometimes made to sound akin to an overly sensual woman's vocal cords on a 900 phone line. No surprise why recent commercials picked up on the idea that men managed to evolve somewhat of a techo crush on the female voices on their GPS systems. And apparently some instances are out there of male GPS voices being used to please all the female drivers out there possibly relieved to be traveling America's roads without their husbands who easily start arguments over where to turn...right here left.

As difficult as it might be to digest, GPS systems have become a habit-forming fixture for millions of lives where it seemed to get us around on our planet without reminding that artificial intelligence doesn't always know what in the hell it's talking about. Based on how many friends of mine have told me how their GPS system occasionally gave a roundabout way to get to a certain destination rather than a shortcut, we finally achieved bitter truth that we aren't quite there yet in the world of artificial intelligence truly conversing with us and providing logic in the answers we want.

That sore point also hit home when hearing that the satellites for GPS systems could potentially shut down a year away from the time of this article. With inevitable budget cuts at NASA ahead and not a realistic chance of GPS satellites getting fixed this year or next, those alarms about the system going black or just slowly breaking down isn't out of the question. It almost puts the second decade of the 21^st century into an oddball ironic frame of reference.

What would happen to society, though, when a technology we all fall back on ends up going away because of unfortunate budgetary and technological deficiencies? In comes our little test in complacency getting its first major test of reworking dormant elements of the human mind...
______

One of the greatest gifts to the human mind I've ever seen in my lifetime is the rare person with an innate compass that helps that person navigate their surroundings by instinct above and beyond basic knowledge of sun positions. While I'm aware that I inherited certain innate talents at birth, having the natural sense of literal direction wasn't one of them. If it wasn't for certain family members or friends in the past when out hiking somewhere in the wild, I probably would have been listed as lost and probably found lifeless somewhere far from where I should have been going. Those particular people tagging along had that instinctual ability to know exactly which direction they were heading without having to look up to see what angle the sun was at the given hour.

We have to assume then that much more of this innate ability once existed en masse in ancient societies. Keep in mind that going out to hunt for the day involved more than just following the sun if they wanted to make it back safely to the cave. Once the era of maps, compasses and satellites started, the devolution of that ability obviously made it extinct for the most part--leaving only a few fortunate souls who managed to retain it in their bloodline. They're the ones we may have to turn to when an inevitable time occurs of all technology temporarily going out during a time of terrorism or other unforeseen circumstance. We'll need those people when wandering around blind on how to get from one deteriorated place to a better one, whether by car, boat, train or plane.

Of course, the possible immediate thought on GPS going out is that we can still use Google Earth on our iPhones or other WiFi system to get some kind of helpful advice on how to get somewhere while driving, walking or cycling. Although said situation might be as bad as dealing with the paper maps once someone in the passenger seat spouts directions from Google Earth that might not give up-to-the-minute information. In the event GPS truly goes down (as well as Google Earth being inaccessible in a car), using a Rand McNally folded map could once again be sitting on the dashboard of many a car and read aloud by a spouse to their significant other doing the driving.

Or, if such a thing seems too archaic to bother doing, just getting out on the road and following signs and reigniting our lost instinct would be that break from complacency needed more than once in a lifetime to reform who we are as human beings. If you've ever been in a personal situation of having a complacent attitude broken by sheer will or a form of tragedy, you undoubtedly had an epiphany that enabled you to get into a better frame of mind. Those scenarios more often than not managed to rid bad habits and bring on abilities we never thought were there.

Call it a metaphorical leap off a precipice, but getting our natural sense of direction back via a technological meltdown would be the best thing to happen to us...at least as a temporary situation to take everybody out of their comfort zones. Through such a scenario, those smooth-talking GPS voices may bring on new TV ads showing a male or female driver telling the voice that their trysts aren't working out and they should only see one another occasionally...

Source:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/gps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217600329&subSection=News